Model Minority? Why Not Model Citizen?

Ivan Ornelas
Section 2
Week 1

Model Minority? Why Not Model Citizen?

 

 

               Geography and Social Studies have always been subjects I’ve enjoyed so I found the

Census 2010 data very interesting. It confirmed some information I already knew (such as California having the most Asian Americans of any state and Hawaii’s proportional Asian population being the highest of any state) but it also introduced me to some new information. I

could’ve guessed Chinese and Filipino were the most common Asian nationalities in the USA and

then Japanese would follow, but they were behind Indian, Vietnamese, and Korean. I guess my

incorrect assumption was due to growing up in the Bay Area and my exposure to Japanese

culture (having Japanese friends, seeing many Japanese restaurants, videogames and anime).

More importantly this information implies a large amount of Asian Americans lead good lives: well

educated, make a lot of money, etc. In lecture, the term “model minority” was used, meaning a

minority who can blend in to the “main” or “dominant” culture. Asians would appear to be a model

minority but that classification has its pros and cons. No one wants to be seen as “the best….only

 of the rest”.

When will we acknowledge people's success and failures for reasons irrelevant to race?